Home > URGENT ACTION TO FORCE RECOUNT IN 34 STATES, GAO INVESTIGATES

URGENT ACTION TO FORCE RECOUNT IN 34 STATES, GAO INVESTIGATES

by Open-Publishing - Saturday 6 November 2004
51 comments

Elections-Elected USA

IF YOU THINK THE ELECTION WAS STOLEN.... AGAIN....

Black Box Voting’s Bev Harris, the leading authority on e-voting, has just lauched the largest Freedom of Information Act request ever for the audit trails on the electronic voting machines one third of the country used in Tuesday’s election. In order to also force a recount in 34 STATES, Black Box is asking all those who want a full recount, who believe the exit polls were NOT wrong, to do the following ASAP:

FAX RALPH NADER AT 202-265-0092.

Write this message: Ralph, PLEASE CHALLENGE THE ELECTION RESULTS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE NOW.

SIGN YOUR NAME AND UNDER IT WRITE: BLACKBOX VOTING.ORG Activist

IF A PRECEDENT CAN BE ESTABLISHED IN NH, A FULL RECOUNT CAN BE FORCED. NH IS JUST TO GET THE BALL ROLLING.

Please see www.blackboxvoting.org and volunteer or donate or www.therandirhodesshow.com Friday Nov. 5th show

AND PASS TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN!

THE GAO HAS ALSO BEEN ASKED BY THREE CONGRESSMEN TO INVESTIGATE. SEE LETTER BELOW.

BUSH HAS NO MANDATE. LET’S PROVE IT.

***
November 5, 2004

The Honorable David M. Walker

Comptroller General of the United States

U.S. General Accountability Office

441 G Street, NW

Washington, DC 20548

Dear Mr. Walker:

We write with an urgent request that the Government Accountability Office immediately undertake an investigation of the efficacy of voting machines and new technologies used in the 2004 election, how election officials responded to difficulties they encountered and what we can do in the future to improve our election systems and administration.

In particular, we are extremely troubled by the following reports, which we would also request that you review and evaluate for us:

In Columbus, Ohio, an electronic voting system gave President Bush nearly 4,000 extra votes. "Machine Error Gives Bush Extra Ohio Votes," Associated Press, November 5.

An electronic tally of a South Florida gambling ballot initiative failed to record thousands of votes. "South Florida OKs Slot Machines Proposal," Id.

In one North Carolina county, more than 4,500 votes were lost because officials mistakenly believed a computer that stored ballots could hold more data that it did. "Machine Error Gives Bush Extra Ohio Votes," Id.

In San Francisco, a glitch occurred with voting machines software that resulted in some votes being left uncounted. Id.

In Florida, there was a substantial drop off in Democratic votes in proportion to voter registration in counties utilizing optical scan machines that was apparently not present in counties using other mechanisms. http://ustogether.org/election04/florida_vote_patt.htm

The House Judiciary Committee Democratic staff has received numerous reports from Youngstown, Ohio that voters who attempted to cast a vote for John Kerry on electronic voting machines saw that their votes were instead recorded as votes for George W. Bush. In South Florida, Congressman Wexler’s staff received numerous reports from voters in Palm Beach, Broward and Dade Counties that they attempted to select John Kerry but George Bush appeared on the screen. CNN has reported that a dozen voters in six states, particularly Democrats in Florida, reported similar problems. This was among over one thousand such problems reported. "Touchscreen Voting Problems Reported," Associated Press, November 5.

Excessively long lines were a frequent problem throughout the nation in Democratic precincts, particularly in Florida and Ohio. In one Ohio voting precinct serving students from Kenyon College, some voters were required to wait more than eight hours to vote. "All Eyes on Ohio," Dan Lothian, CNN, November 3, http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/blog/1...blog/index.htm..

We are literally receiving additional reports every minute and will transmit additional information as it comes available. The essence of democracy is the confidence of the electorate in the accuracy of voting methods and the fairness of voting procAedures. In 2000, that confidence suffered terribly, and we fear that such a blow to our democracy may have occurred in 2004.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this inquiry.

Sincerely,

John Conyers, Jr. Jerrold Nadler Robert Wexler

Ranking Member Ranking Member Member of Congress

House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution

cc: Hon. F. James Sensenbrenner

Chairman

Forum posts

  • please, lord, oh please, let it be true. Please let that snippy little capital spending GW
    get spanked right out the gate. Between this and the continuing slaughterhouse
    in Iraq, maybe, just maybe GW will turn back into the snivelling mongrel he truly is.
    I’m watching some psycho christian republicans on tv and they are telling us
    that Bush won, and evangelicals are here to stay, etc etc etc. They’re all old and
    shrivelled and stupid. They will implode in NO TIME. LETS push them over the mental
    edge. Time to GO SEE JESUS!!!

    • Nader Requests Recount In N.H.

      http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041106/NEWS02/111060040/-1/news

    • The election is over. Get over it!!!

    • Wow. Word for word as what my dad said. You both must watch Faux News.

    • The election is not over untill every vote is counted. Would you like to know that you vote was counted? People waited some for over 10 hours to vote, we just want their votes to count. In many places they are still counting the votes. Just get over it, and let all the votes be counted. And why are you in a hurry? Just let the votes be counted. Did you know that in Washington state, in at least one polling place there are three hours of lost votes? How would you feel if that was you vote?

    • if i ’get over’ cheating, then i give up on democracy. frankly, i’m almost there. anything that can be taken, will. maybe if i start voting republican they will have mercy on me. JEB for KING in 2008!!! Death to the infidels!!!

    • I think GW Bush is going to tear down in four years what has been accomplished in 225 years. I believe he’s the greatest enemy of democracy in the world.

    • If there was criminal activity of such magnitude as the possibility that our whole "democratic" "election" was rigged, then no, the "election" is not over until Bush and his fellow criminals are deposed and brought to justice.

    • Do you fear a recount?

  • What won’t the sore losing, loony left do in order to kick GW out? GET OVER IT ALREADY! Even The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (there, it’s a european organization, you leftists should be satisfied) said it was unable to substantiate the allegations. It also said that on Tuesday it observed relatively few attempts to challenge a voter’s eligibility".

    All members of the RIGHT RED NATION, watch out for these rabid leftists as they try to steal the presidency and delegitimize again the rightful winner, President Bush, and counteract all their efforts. They are a cancer in our society and should be wiped out.

    • The critter who wrote the below...shoots himself in the foot...then like the intelligent beast he is...he keeps reloading the gun...see a psychologist...it’s less painfull...!

      What won’t the sore losing, loony left do in order to kick GW out? GET OVER IT ALREADY! Even The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (there, it’s a european organization, you leftists should be satisfied) said it was unable to substantiate the allegations. It also said that on Tuesday it observed relatively few attempts to challenge a voter’s eligibility".
      All members of the RIGHT RED NATION, watch out for these rabid leftists as they try to steal the presidency and delegitimize again the rightful winner, President Bush, and counteract all their efforts. They are a (...)

    • Please, Please everyone just stop and think for a moment. We need make just one simple demand of ALL ELECTIONS officials of the 2004 Presidential campaign: PROVE THERE WERE VOTES CAST EVERY WHERE A TALLY IF OFFERED as evidence of an election.

      The repubs thought they were smart when they eliminated the receipts and paper trails. Well, it is totally reasonable for anyone to expect that officials could PROVE that votes were cast. In precincts with paper ballots the ballots themselves are offered as proof. If you can not prove an event occured using the rules of evidence then the alleged event is nullified and the results should be thrown out.

      A simple demonstration would be a voter goes into a booth and votes then exits and prepares to re-enter after saying Oh I changed my mind now I’m going to vote! Prove that he did vote... Well, the closest thing would be an audit trail that in theory would allow the voter to confirm that he did vote

    • If you, and all those of your ilk, are SO SURE Bush won legitamately, then why not welcome a recount?
      Any politician, election official, or manufacturer of voting machines that try to block transparent vote counting should be viewed with EXTREME suspicion. Can you imagine how the republicans would react if Michael Moore was appointed to count all the votes alone and in secret. Ha!

    • I have an idea Republicans should realize now that WE WON’T GIVE UP TILL YOUR PARTY STOPS BUYING ELECTIONS. We are HALF the American public and we aren’t going away. Everyone has a constitutional right to have their vote counted CORRECTLY. We aren’t getting over it, we are fighting and don’t think for one moment that we will lie down and die. Stop telling us to get over it. Your president is a liar and he’s the worst kind he smiles to your face while he does it. He has no remorse and this man dares to tell me to trust him and to trust that he will take care of my country? No way, never.

    • It’s not the critter that needs to see the psychologist.

    • So do something to prove that the election was NOT stolen. You have every right to submit valid proof that there were no issues with the machines, and that it is in everyone’s best interest to just drop it.

      Any proof that you may have that can defeat the proof that the Democrats have will be considered.

      Me? I’m non-partisan. I just think it would be nice to see some tangible proof either way so we can get on with our lives.

      And no, simple links to well-known websites declaring George W. Bush the winner won’t suffice. They may be viewed as biased. Please limit your proof to non-partisan material. An example may be Bev Harris and Blackboxvoting.org, a non-partisan site that makes or at least could make valid points. I would like to point out that a European council will not suffice. They have no say in our electoral process, aswe have no say in theirs. Let’s please keep it strictly on American soil, as we are the ones who make the choice for our president and commander-in-chief.

      Let’s present the evidence in a manner that will allow the opportunity for the visitor’s or readers to make an informed decision based on the facts presented to them.

      Fair enough?

    • Gee - and the outrageously biased media is fair?? What happened to the Dan Rather’s CBS report on Bush’s National Guard record that was found to be fabricated and totally false. Seems like that was just "brushed under the rug" - it’s amazing what Kerry was able to get away, without question, in his campaign

    • Well that is not true. I worked at polling place and there were problems. I have worked for over 15 years with the elections and have never seen so many problems. Why when people ask questions. they are called leftist? Are you so unsure of the vote , that you do not want every vote to count?

    • Oh for gods sake, why are you so scared of a recount?? and as for Dan Rather, no one EVER said that what was on the papers was untrue, just that the papers were "forged" not the original, I would bet my bottom dollar that the information on the papers was correct and that someone had indeed seen the originals and out of frustration for those not being available and being over zealous to get the INFO ON THE PAPER out to the public, forged the word doc. So the format was forged but not what was ON THE PAPER!

    • I am a Texan. I’m a conservative christian. I am a Republican. But even I can see that President Bush is a snake oil salesman who has done tremendous damage to this country. I believe he should be impeached for lying to us about why we went into Iraq. That is just the tip of the iceberg of his lies. We need a president who will be honest with us and not continually use this country’s good people for his own agenda.

    • Glad to hear a Texan Republican can see what’s happening and believes impeachment is in order, me too! Hey, Kerry will un-concede if there is solid evidence of fraud. Kerry’s brother is gathering evidence. He needs first hand evidence of anyone who was not allowed to vote or vote provisionally for whatever reason, or had any problems voting. If you know anyone personally who tried to vote and was turned away, please get their information. Send to CKerry@Mintz.com.
      We must make Democracy work in America. We are not a country where he who cheats best wins.

    • Fuck the South. Fuck ’em. We should have let them go when they wanted to leave. But no, we had to kill half a million people so they’d stay part of our special Union. Fighting for the right to keep slaves - yeah, those are states we want to keep.

      And now what do we get? We’re the fucking Arrogant Northeast Liberal Elite? How about this for arrogant: the South is the Real America? The Authentic America. Really?

      Cause we fucking founded this country, assholes. Those Founding Fathers you keep going on and on about? All that bullshit about what you think they meant by the Second Amendment giving you the right to keep your assault weapons in the glove compartment because you didn’t bother to read the first half of the fucking sentence? Who do you think those wig-wearing lacy-shirt sporting revolutionaries were? They were fucking blue-staters, dickhead. Boston? Philadelphia? New York? Hello? Think there might be a reason all the fucking monuments are up here in our backyard?

      No, No. Get the fuck out. We’re not letting you visit the Liberty Bell and fucking Plymouth Rock anymore until you get over your real American selves and start respecting those other nine amendments. Who do you think those fucking stripes on the flag are for? Nine are for fucking blue states. And it would be 10 if those Vermonters had gotten their fucking Subarus together and broken off from New York a little earlier. Get it? We started this shit, so don’t get all uppity about how real you are you Johnny-come-lately "Oooooh I’ve been a state for almost a hundred years" dickheads. Fuck off.

      Arrogant? You wanna talk about us Northeasterners being fucking arrogant? What’s more American than arrogance? Hmmm? Maybe horsies? I don’t think so. Arrogance is the fucking cornerstone of what it means to be American. And I wouldn’t be so fucking arrogant if I wasn’t paying for your fucking bridges, bitch.

      All those Federal taxes you love to hate? It all comes from us and goes to you, so shut up and enjoy your fucking Tennessee Valley Authority electricity and your fancy highways that we paid for. And the next time Florida gets hit by a hurricane you can come crying to us if you want to, but you’re the ones who built on a fucking swamp. "Let the Spanish keep it, it’s a shithole," we said, but you had to have your fucking orange juice.

      The next dickwad who says, "It’s your money, not the government’s money" is gonna get their ass kicked. Nine of the ten states that get the most federal fucking dollars and pay the least... can you guess? Go on, guess. That’s right, motherfucker, they’re red states. And eight of the ten states that receive the least and pay the most? It’s too easy, asshole, they’re blue states. It’s not your money, assholes, it’s fucking our money. What was that Real American Value you were spouting a minute ago? Self reliance? Try this for self reliance: buy your own fucking stop signs, assholes.

      Let’s talk about those values for a fucking minute. You and your Southern values can bite my ass because the blue states got the values over you fucking Real Americans every day of the goddamn week. Which state do you think has the lowest divorce rate you marriage-hyping dickwads? Well? Can you guess? It’s fucking Massachusetts, the fucking center of the gay marriage universe. Yes, that’s right, the state you love to tie around the neck of anyone to the left of Strom Thurmond has the lowest divorce rate in the fucking nation. Think that’s just some aberration? How about this: 9 of the 10 lowest divorce rates are fucking blue states, asshole, and most are in the Northeast, where our values suck so bad. And where are the highest divorce rates? Care to fucking guess? 10 of the top 10 are fucking red-ass we’re-so-fucking-moral states. And while Nevada is the worst, the Bible Belt is doing its fucking part.

      But two guys making out is going to fucking ruin marriage for you? Yeah? Seems like you’re ruining it pretty well on your own, you little bastards. Oh, but that’s ok because you go to church, right? I mean you do, right? Cause we fucking get to hear about it every goddamn year at election time. Yes, we’re fascinated by how you get up every Sunday morning and sing, and then you’re fucking towers of moral superiority. Yeah, that’s a workable formula. Maybe us fucking Northerners don’t talk about religion as much as you because we’re not so busy sinning, hmmm? Ever think of that, you self-righteous assholes? No, you’re too busy erecting giant stone tablets of the Ten Commandments in buildings paid for by the fucking Northeast Liberal Elite. And who has the highest murder rates in the nation? It ain’t us up here in the North, assholes.

      Well this gravy train is fucking over. Take your liberal-bashing, federal-tax-leaching, confederate-flag-waving, holier-than-thou, hypocritical bullshit and shove it up your ass.

      And no, you can’t have your fucking convention in New York next time. Fuck off.

      contact

    • It’s MY MONEY, not the Governments Money.

      Now let me know what your physical location is so that I may meet with you, and you can attempt to kick my ass.

      You have Shit for brains.
      I hope your parents didn’t pay for the education that you never received.

  • I’m reserving judgement until all the results are in and all evidence reviewed, but in the mean time, I think we Democrats should start a voting machine manufacturing company, and start pursuing election and appointment of devoted Democrats in elections offices in every state, and organize crews to challenge Republican voters in every precinct in every state. If the Repbulicans want viotes that can be hacked, let’s go in open warfare mode and make sure we can disenfranchise as many Republican votes as they can Democratic votes. We have four years. Go to it. Either that or we get rid of all challengers and all voting machines that do not produce a paper ballot receipt for use in re-counts immediately. If one party can F _ _ k true democracy in the A _ S with a barbed wire implement, then ALL parties should do it as agressively as possible. You don’t want bitching about the legitemacy of election results, then hold secure, free, verifiable, intimidation-free elections where every US citizen gets to vote, period. When you use methods that are shady and make it easy to cheat, expect accusations and investigations and mis-trust. This is precisely the fault of the parties responsible for setting up this farce of an election, be they Democrat or Republican. Every piece of stinking brown organics that was involved in allowing this to happen this way should be incarcerated on Alcatraz with nothing but spam and canned vegetables, no salt, no pepper, for life without parole. If we had enacted and held truly fair elections that were secure and Bush had won, no one would be saying anything about the validity of his election. You still would hear a four year long groan emanating from half the country and most of the world for the next four years, but no one would be questioning the legitemacy of either his election or a Republican majority. With what actually was done, EVERYONE should have been bitching out their politicians long before this election ever happened. What you and your party are being accused of is your own damn fault, and you are not getting out of it until we have proof you didn’t cheat and all methods of potential cheating are removed from the electoral process. You should be working to do so yourself - it could be YOU next election.

    We need to: 1. Make it illegal NOT to vote, $1,000.00 fine unless you are hospitaslized. 2. Make it impossible to cheat. 3. Make it a life sentence to intimidate, mis-direct, lie to, or otherwise attempt to block any citizen’s right to vote. Included in the life sentence is the permanent loss of the offender’s right to vote. 4. Make the entire election week time off work unless you are a hospital, utility, fire, or election worker. 5. Require the media to give equal air time to each candidate for office at each level for free for the two months preceeding the election in return for the right to do business in this country. 6. Eliminate all requirements for a candidate running for office to be on the ballots other than age, citizenship, and not be a felon currently serving their sentence. (When you’ve served your time you can then run in the next election.)

    The above should be made the next ammendment to the US constitution word-for-word. If these principles were followed we would have a true representative democracy and no one would be questioning the legitemacy of any electee. Anything less is treasonous hijacking of democracy.

    • "1. Make it illegal NOT to vote, $1,000.00 fine unless you are hospitaslized. "

      The left’s answer to freedom to vote or not to vote in the USA.

      You’re a nut!!!

    • Wow! Where to begin? Let’s just take your points one by one.

      We need to: 1. Make it illegal NOT to vote, $1,000.00 fine unless you are hospitaslized.

      a. This would really be nice for the poor among us as it would scare them into abandoning their children outside the voting areas and cast any vote just to avoid losing 2 months of assistance to pay the fine!

      b. Who gets the money from the fines? Do we reward a government unable to administer fair voting by giving it a made-to-order account to pillage for more defrauding of the people?

      just wondering here...

      2. Make it impossible to cheat.

      This one makes a great idea trivial by acting as though this is really legislatible. Try offering a fool-proof method and I will bet you it takes less than 24 hours for someone to defeat your fool-proof idea. Better to legislate minimum effectiveness standards BEFORE any new voting methodology can be adopted.

      3. Make it a life sentence to intimidate, mis-direct, lie to, or otherwise attempt to block any citizen’s right to vote. Included in the life sentence is the permanent loss of the offender’s right to vote.

      OMG! Let’s just add to the already overburdened economy by suplementing current prison populations with politically motivated vandals. All we need is integrity police forcing the upright to subsidize the costs of imprisoning these offenders. Better yet, subsidize future elections and current prison populations by forcing these people to pay an extra 10% in taxes to be split between research and development of more secure means of voting and the rising cost of prisons and the cost to society of housing and feeding their inmates.

      4. Make the entire election week time off work unless you are a hospital, utility, fire, or election worker.

      Okay, now you’re just being lazy. How does losing 2% of the GNP because of work stoppage help the American people decide on a President? And why are you picking on the emergency workers? These people have to lose their ability to vote because your lazy A_S broke a nail voting and you need medical attention? Get real. As Bill Engvall likes to say, "Here’s your sign."

      5. Require the media to give equal air time to each candidate for office at each level for free for the two months preceeding the election in return for the right to do business in this country.

      Finally! The FCC licenses these media bozos in the first place, so let’s just include some public service in their contracts. On this point I whole-heartedly agree with you, even though we may have to give some consideration to limiting the amount of time allowed to each candidate and the offices for which these time apportionments are available. Needs work, but I like the direction you are taking here.

      6. Eliminate all requirements for a candidate running for office to be on the ballots other than age, citizenship, and not be a felon currently serving their sentence. (When you’ve served your time you can then run in the next election.)

      And I thought you were beginning to have good ideas... Oh well, at least give me the consideration to not have to spend 10 hours in a voting booth scouring the lists for my candidate because every crackpot in America is listed.

      I am a voting independent in the strictest sense, in that I give my vote based on relevance, voting history of the candidate, and positions that I agree with on key issues. I hope for the best and don’t count on my candidates being most popular, trusting that our system is getting better with each fresh examination and review and that it is at least better than any other method I know of anywhere else in the world. Keep improving and refining the system, but remember to be thankful we are free while we are doing it.
      And if you got this far reading my response, thanks for your time. Here’s my one suggestion, though it is hardly original: amend the U.S.Constitution to either, (a) eliminate the electoral college altogether and let the popular vote tallies count as final, period, or (b) make the electoral awards in each state proportional to the number of popular votes recorded in that state. It is not a perfect idea, but it seems to have some merit to me. Any other ideas out there?

    • Hope it’s your vote vanishing next, Red.

  • the math is simple. You vote name A or touch name A. How did you know your vote was going to name A instead of name B? Two voters casted, one voted A, another voted B. Finally, name A got zero vote, name B got two votes. 2= 1+1, or 2=0+2. All, it’s binary code.

    You cannot verfied that. E-voting machine is money machine that eat money. Any programmers can change one line of the code to put in the final e-voting machines. When you test the those machines they can swith the code and show you the result is perfect and e-voting machines have no error, because no paper left behind. There are scandals behind those machines. These trick can only play one time. Finally, people will find that, but it’s too late to recover the serious damages. Game is over!!!

  • You should get a firm grasp of grammar before you try to understand politics.

    John Kerry had a recount legal account that had millions of dollars, if he had any chance of winning by recount or challenging e-voting machines he would have done it. The man has dreamed of being President since he was a child; don’t you think he would have kept fighting if the vote was fraudulent.

    How come when voting machines show up in Philadelphia at polling places and are already stuffed with votes for John Kerry this doesn’t bother you? I would propose that you really don’t care about voting legitimacy but about John Kerry winning.

    The file was placed for the e-voting records not because they are not legitimate but because she wants to ensure that they are legitimate.

    No one of any legitimacy or sound mind is challenging the legitimacy of this vote. I would suggest you attempt to think logically and about what IS true and not what you WANT to be true.

    • " You should get a firm grasp of grammar before you try to understand politics.
      John Kerry had a recount legal account that had millions of dollars, if he had any chance of winning by recount or challenging e-voting machines he would have done it"

      He is doing something it’s just out of the radar of the media, he used to be a prosecutor, and voting fraud is illegal. Trust me, this is far from over.

    • Are you really so brainwashed that you think there is no corruption in politics.If that is so then why is everyone in Australia wondering how the hell John Howard got back in.In another quirky turn of events,a radical right wing christian group,who no-one knew existed until the election(family first is there name),got seats everywhere.This tiny group also had an unprecedented 1 million dollar election campaign coffer.It also seems John Howard had many a secret meeting with this group before the election.This group condemned JH and his incessant rambling about how important the invasion of iraq was and swore they would give no preferences to him.Yet at the end of the day,they gave all their preferences to him.Our own voting system utilised electronic voting for the first time this election.

      But I guess you just think I am paranoid,better paranoid than a brainwashed sheep.

    • No I think that without a paper trail it makes real hard to have a recount. But we must look in to the black boxes and why in some places there are hours of missing votes. Also not all the votes have been counted.If this were your vote would you like it counted.

  • Its not about sore losing my friends. Its that this could of been stolen. I did’nt vote for both since I don’t vote for the lesser of 2 evils but you reactionaries need to calm your asses down and see if this is right.

  • I feel with all of my heart the this Election was stolen just like in 2000 this voteing system need a overhauling all state’s should have the same system it a same that people would stoop this low just for power

  • My vote wasn’t counted until Wednesday. Here in Flathead County Montana (>50,000 voters) we vote on paper scanner ballots. The election judges noticed after passing 2 precincts thru the scanning machines that there were:
    A) Vote cast = 2 x ballots. (credited to operator error in the news here)
    B) There were ZERO "no" votes on CI-147 (measure to allow cyanide heap leaching gold mining)
    The officials wisely decided to stop the vote and find out what the heck was going on.
    The company that programs the counter/scanner (never mentioned by name in our media) reprogrammed last into the night.
    The local paper reported that they had "forgotten" to count the NO vote.

    I really wish these machines and their software would be examined by many experts.
    Remember, "To err is human, to massively screw it up is computer."

  • We need to make sure the vote is counted. Many peolpe want to know why the black boxes in some places like washington state lost three hours of votes. How can we have a election were every vote is not counted. if this were a third world country we would be up in arms saying that new elections must happen.The system of one person one vote , means that every vote must be counted. A count of every vote must happen.

  • A recount is expensive and I don’t want to go through the whole Florida thing all over again times 34. You don’t seem to have a lot of respect for the people who conduct the elections. No doubt there were discrepancies here and there but I don’t think they are out of the ordinary nor do I think they would have changed the outcome. The democrats should just face the fact that they lost and do one of the following: stop whining and work to win the next election or leave the united states until the next election.

    • $144,283,960,869.00 is expensive = cost of the War in Iraq to date and still counting.

      1,287 coalition deaths in Iraq is expensive

      100,000 Iraqi deaths is expensive

      so what’s a little expense at recount of votes. People are dying to preserve the lies on all sides now.

    • I don’t know where your figures are from because they seem a little zany. The US only spent 1 billion dollars in Iraq so far. And all those soldiers who gave up their life died honorably and helped free 25 million people and start them off with a chance for a better beginning. As for the recount, it doesn’t accomplish anything positive, people like you would still doubt the outcome because Bush is the clear winner.

    • Yes,the freedom to watch filth and propoganda on television.We have freedom in Australia too;
      The freedom to have to vote,to have to microchip and register our pets,to have to send our kids to propaganda factories,the freedom to speak unless they dont like what you say,the freedom to pay for education,the freedom to be subjected to bullshit on TV,the freedom to have to live in a house,the freedom to be harassed by train guards,security officers,police,the freedom to be arrested for protesting,the freedom to allow asio to swarm our houses with no reason,the freedom to have to wear bicycle helmuts,the freedom to have to accept any rash decision the government makes and the freedom to be called traitors if we object.I dont have the freedom to spend 1 billion dollars on an invasion or to object to that amount being spent.When is the next time you;ll see 1 billion dollars.And thanks to the US government we will soon have the freedom to pay for health care or die,to pay for education and to be sued for competing with the UPS.

      Now Iraq has that freedom,lucky them.

    • Hey stupid bastard the 1 billion you think was the only money spent are you that stupid??? You read that only 1 billion was spent REBUILDING Iraq...that is not the same figure as what has been spent fighting the war...God I swear there are some stupid fuckers in this country as if we had only spent 1 billion, I can’t imagine anyone alive and that dumb, God how do you even get your teeth brushed or your groceries purchased...do you have full time help...wise up ass hole or go away we truly do not need any input from some one as profoundly stupid as you are....how in the hell could we have only spent 1 billion on this disaster in the making that is bankrupting this braindead country....1 billion for the rebuilding stupid, 1 billion on the REBUILDING you moron....get a brain.

    • Hey poodleprick, $1 billion dollars still goes a long way, there are estimates that are out there but that is the total after it has all been finished. But so far, only $1 billion dollars has been spent.

    • Only 1 billion dollars?How can you put only and 1 billion in the same sentence.Most people on this planet dont even know what 1 billion dollars looks like,or 1 million for that matter.Your country owes trillions to its own federal bank,and you say only 1 billion?Amazing.

    • 1 billion dollars is nothing when your GDP is around 11 trillion dollars. As for the deficit, again it is manageable. Once the growth trend strengthens, the deficit becomes smaller and smaller.

    • MANAGEABLE,IT IS FUCKING OUTRAGEOUS.YOU HAD BETTER HOPE THE GERMAN BANKERS THAT OWN THE FEDERAL RESERVE DONT TURN AROUND AND DEMAND IMMEDIATE PAYMENT OR YOUR HOLE COUNTRY WILL BE SCREWED.

  • wake up america: we have been had again .... i am still waiting for my absentee ballot.i am a democrat living in broward county. i was told to bad you wont be getting a ballot,it takes two weeks to a month. i called the dnc to report this to one of there lawyers,spoke to lisa blue from dallas,texas i sure she has a record of this. i smell a rat .....we need answers we have the right to vote....i was voting absentee because i could not get to the polls,i could not leave my 82 year mother and disabled brother alone. how many more absentee ballots were not sent out in time??????